Ian Allen/ Staff Photographer
'Rock Bottom', craftsman of 20 years, providing items for tourists and locals alike.IN THE busy market setting of Port Antonio, craftsmen have woven their way into the very fabric of the market, providing items for tourists and the locals alike. Unlike the rest of the market which has an odd mixture of food, clothing and beauty supplies, there is a place designated for craft items. This is where, Girvan 'Rock Bottom' Rhoofe, craftsman of 20 years, sets up shop.
'Rock Bottom' has woven his way into the Jamaica Tourist Board by doing promotional work with them. He has travelled with the JTB to Miami, Coconut Grove and Aventura Mall, in Florida; Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and Battery Park in Manhattan. He is originally from Long Road in Portland, but has been in Port Antonio for a while.
'Rock Bottom' wasn't always a craftsman he used to be a fisherman but that proved a little dangerous to his health, so he quit and started in the carving business. "One of my friends drown and I got afraid." So his days of diving and selling shells were over.
"Business is bad right now, but sometimes we can buy a food," the artist said.
"The craft village is too small," he said of the village being set up near the coast to attract tourists. "All the craft people won't be able to hold. Dem waan fi get wi outta business," he lamented. Rock Bottom thinks they need to have a proper place to sell their art. He believes they (the craftsmen) should remain in the market, which is easily accessible to the pier. A back gate runs from the pier into the market.
Regardless, he feels it is his duty to protect the tourists who come into the market. He said tourists had come to Port Antonio and were robbed, but he took them home and cared for them, even paying their departure tax.
"I do a lot fi tourist, if any one of them come into the place and people try to rob or harm dem, is me dem call." He is the father of the craft market, it would seem.
Since the recent heavy rains that flooded parts of the island, the craftsmen have been feeling the pinch. "It has affected us a lot. Now and then, things pick up, but not enough to pay the bills - I can find food money," he told Outlook.
Today, he proudly displays his carvings which vary from busts of the Rastaman to the Rastawoman. He also sells trinkets which he makes himself. We spotted a carving with the back facing us. But when we turned it around we erupted in laughter - it was one of those nude 'well endowed' men. Laughing out loud, he said, "I make nude carvings, but I have to hide them from the kids."
SM
